Wednesday, December 31, 2014

So I came across this Braided Nutella Bread on Pinterest that I just had to try it. It was surprisingly easy, but I found the dough a bit tough and bland. So I followed the technique, but used a variation on a coffee cake recipe that I use in my bread machine. End result - cute and tasty! So here is my version of the Nutella Snowflake Coffee Cake!

Nutella Snowflake Coffee Cake

Dough:

In your bread machine, put the following ingredients, and mix using the dough cycle according to your machine directions. (If you don't have a bread machine, use either the dough hooks on your mixer or blend and then knead by hand.)

2 1/2 cups regular flour

1/4 cup butter, softened and cut into one inch squares

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup sour cream

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons quick rising yeast (be sure it is fresh!)

I always check the bread machine while it is mixing. I like the dough to stay fairly soft, so if it seems dry add a bit more water a teaspoon at a time. Let the dough rise for a couple hours, or until about doubled.

When done, remove the dough, divide in half, and form into two balls. Let it rest about 10 minutes. Then roll the dough into two 12 inch circles. Cover a round pizza pan with a parchment paper circle and set the first dough circle on top.

Spread the first circle with Nutella (I used Trader Joe's Cocoa Almond Spread) up to about a half inch of the edge of the dough.

Top with the second circle of dough. Pinch the edges together - you can brush the inside edges with a bit of water if it isn't sticking together. I lightly pressed a glass on top to mark the center. Then I sliced the dough into 16 pieces - first halves, then quarters, then eighths, then sixteenths - it helps to keep the slices the same size.

Take two pieces and twist them towards each other. I think I did 3 twists each time. It was actually quite easy to do this.

Repeat all the way around. Then let rise until about doubled, about another hour or so.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 15 to 30 minutes. My oven actually died in the midst of baking these for my neighbors, so I ended up going to a friend's house to finish them. So the temperature or the time may be slightly off, so watch closely and adjust according to your oven. Cover the top with foil if it seems to be browning too quickly.

Let it totally cool. Doesn't it look cute??

I drizzled it with a glaze made of powdered sugar, milk, and a little melted butter before wrapping it up for delivery to my neighbors.

This recipe is definitely a keeper. Next time (after I get a new oven), I may try it with butter, nuts, and cinnamon sugar. Not sure if the snowflake design will be as obvious as with the Nutella, but worth a try.

Before the season is over, just wanted to share a few ways that I used vintage items in my Christmas decorating. After the epic flooding in my basement this summer, I lost a lot of my Christmas decorations. It forces me to take a fresh look at some the the things that I still had and see what I could do with them!

A friend gave me this old coffee pot when cleaning out her parents' home. A perfect spot to "plant" a little Christmas tree. Next year I will try a real mini one and see if the cats will leave it alone.

A bare spot on the wall where I hung my childhood plaid lunch box.

So obsessed with bottle brush trees. I picked up a package of them at Joann's last year post Christmas and scattered them everywhere. I like the look of this one perched on an upside down tea cup.

More trees and a snowman caught in a mason jar. (Made the snowman years ago, one of the few of my snowman collection that survived the flood.)

I had to toss all the Christmas wreaths that were stored in the basement. Here is a new one I put together using some thrift store sweaters I had stashed away and and some vintage buttons.

I sadly lost most of my vintage ornaments from my grandmother - the water melted the paint right of the them. Wish I hadn't tossed them and kept them as a plain silver color, but was so overwhelmed at the time with trying to save things. A few were left, and I went out this December to antique stories to try to replace a some of them with some similar ornaments. Put them in a bowl under a tinsel tree.

I added a few red dishes from the dollar store to my stack of blue dishes. The mason jar has a solar light top that I discovered at Michaels - I'm definitely getting more of them!

I also bought a bunch of these cute little frames at Michaels at their dollar spot. My brother recently scanned all of our family slides, so I added a few photos from when we kids. Will do more of these for next year.

A few years ago I made some faux mercury class candle holders out of thrift store dished. Mixed them with a pretty door knob. Put a few bottle brush trees in bleach to turn them white. One of my cats loves playing with these trees and I keep finding them on the floor, thus the wonky shape.

More vintage postcards. Twisted wire as holders in a salt shaker and in a door knob.

And speaking of cats, they did much better this year at staying out of the Christmas tree (at least while I was watching) but they still both had to check it out when I first put it up.